STEPHENVILLE, Texas _ The injury-depleted University of Central Arkansas Bears closed out their season Saturday with a 24-3 loss to Tarleton State at Memorial Stadium.

The Bears (5-6) played with out two of their offensive leaders in sixth-year quarterback Breylin Smith and fourth-year wide receiver Lujuan Winningham, both out with injuries. Minus that pair, the Bears managed just 161 yards of total offense, with only 69 yards through the air. It was UCA's lowest scoring output since a shutout loss to Southeastern Louisiana in 2019.

UCA used three quarterbacks in Smith's absence, all underclassmen with little or no game experience. Darius Bower of Fayetteville drew the start and was 4 of 13 for 43 yards. Hunter Loyd of Rogers was 4 of 12 for 26 yards, while freshman Tyler Gee came on at the end of the first half for a Hail Mary attempt.

True freshman Darius Hale finished with 76 yards rushing on 21 carries and became UCA's first 1,000-yard rusher since Brent Grimes in 2009. Hale, from Pearland, Texas, gained 1,015 yards and scored 17 rushing touchdowns. Record-setting sophomore receiver Tyler Hudson, who broke both the single-season and career receiving records at UCA this season, was held to one reception for 29 yards.

"Darius and Hunter played and battled their butts off,' said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "They were put in a tough situation. We haven't had winds like this all year. When you're going into the wind, your game plan changes a little bit. And those guys haven't gotten any reps. It's not like they've even got a lot of cleanup duty, so this was really those guys getting thrown to the wolves.

"And I thought they both competed their tails off and worked hard. We just didn't have a good enough running game tonight to help them out enough. We just couldn't make that big play that could push us over the top. And that was tough.'

The Bears trailed 10-3 at the half, despite two fourth-down stands by their defense, one at the 1-yard line. But UCA could only get a 24-yard field goal from junior Hayden Ray with 12:20 left in the second quarter. UCA ran for just 70 yards in the first half and did not complete a pass. The Texans had 247 yards but just 10 points.

The second half was more of the same for the Bears on the offensive side, with 91 total yards but just 22 rushing yards. The Texans scored three times, on a 19-yard field goal after another UCA defensive stop, with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Steven Duncan to Derrel Kelley and a 34-yard touchdown strike fromm Duncan to Gabe Douglas that sealed the win with 5:01 left to play. UCA's defense, which was also missing one of its top tacklers in safety Cameron Godfrey, allowed 477 yards, including 260 on the ground.

UCA closed the season with consecutive losses after a three-game winning streak in late October and early November. 

"I just told the guys if they expected me to say something profound or make it OK or make you feel better, I probably wasn't going to do a good job of it,' Brown said after his postgame talk to the squad. "More so, just told them I'm proud of them. Our guys battled and competed and fought all year. The cards weren't dealt our way this year and it sucks. 

"And it's going to be a soul-searching offseason. For me, looking in the mirror, our staff and our program and our players that are coming back. Because there's a lot of talent on this team, a lot of talent that's leaving but we've got a ton of talent in the group that's coming back.'